A forge is a forge is a forge is a forge is a forge 

Jazz-Schmiede Düsseldorf: workshop - venue - restaurant

In Asia, Africa and Europe, the blacksmith has enjoyed a prominent social position and cultural-historical significance since ancient times - beyond his work as a craftsman.

In the Old Testament, the first blacksmith 'Tubal-Cain' and his brother 'Jubal' are even mentioned as the inventors of musical instruments. King David', who made music with the lyre 'Kinnor', is also presented in the Bible as a blacksmith and even adopted in this function from the Koran.

The connection between blacksmithing and music runs through many myths and customs of the Orient and Africa. in ancient Greece, 'Hephaestus' was worshipped as the 'god of fire', the 'god of blacksmithing' and the 'bringer of culture'. And the legend of 'Pythagoras in the forge', which refers to the melodious tones produced by the blows of the blacksmith's hammer, even established the first 'theory of music', which continued to have an effect into the Middle Ages, albeit a very controversial one ..

In the old craft smithy, it was initially the sound of the tools and the precise and targeted blows of the blacksmith's hammer on the anvil and the workpieces in progress that defined the sound of the venerable craft right into the age of industrial culture.

The cunning of a kind fate - and the passionate persistence of enthusiastic musicians and music lovers in Düsseldorf - made the change from an old forge to a new 'old' forge - the 'Jazz-Schmiede' - possible 30 years ago, the change from a workshop to a venue, a place of lively, free artistic creation in musical performance with a lively, participatory audience.

In the new 'old' forge, it is the sound of the instruments and the sounds of the music that characterise the sound of a new era.

The cultural development of blacksmithing and the shaping of the blacksmith's job description - as 'homo faber' - also reflects the change from the forge as a workshop to the forge as a music venue - for the 'homo ludens'. Music as an art form which, in its manifestation as jazz, has a particularly experimental, border-testing, if not boundary-breaking character! Can there be a more symbolic work and performance venue for the free play of forces, removed from immediate purposes, which are orientated towards the acoustically sensual experience of the musician as well as that of the music listener and empathiser? In the presence of the playful, lively realisation of musical creation in the 'Jazz-Schmiede' - and in its function as a place of hospitality - the best moments of authentic aesthetic enjoyment arise for artists and musicians, for visitors and listeners.

In this public and hospitable place - an old workshop for new works - aren't the chances particularly good for the success of forging an aesthetic pact - at least for the moment - between artist, artwork and art-loving guest? And - to exaggerate playfully - can't people ultimately be completely human when they are playing jazz?

In this public and hospitable place - an old workshop for new works - aren't the chances particularly good for the success of forging an aesthetic pact - at least for the moment - between artist, artwork and art-loving guest? And - to exaggerate playfully - can't people ultimately be completely human when they are playing jazz?

In jazz - in its playful, associative, intuitive and sometimes well-calculated form and in the suggestive fragment - the romantic longing of the guest, his need for an overall context that can be grasped rationally, for meaning, is served at the moment of listening, but on the other hand it is cancelled out again by the subterranean dissolution of the boundaries of the finite, the isolated. Jazz - in its various manifestations, including free, seemingly formless (un)forms - playfully and skilfully cultivates an openness that can have an effect on the listener in the sensual realisation of the performance: challenging, liberating, comforting, purifying, sometimes redeeming ... precisely because no expedient plans (have to) be 'forged' any more ... And wouldn't that be a point of the functional change from the work to the performance venue 'forge'? Jazz - like art and music in general perhaps - 'relieves' the sensual participant in special moments through the saving moment of aesthetic pleasure ..